Xuereuse☃corrigez-moi svp(ping!)

[potent plaza]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[hexed egret]

• Il s’est alors enfui en Égypte.
• Il s’est mis à genoux devant l’autel.

With (alors) in between the verbs, can I move it to somewhere else in the sentence or would that break the structure?

Mettre, sometimes it’s not a pronominal, right? When I first read these sentence the (etre) threw me off a little.

[worthy frost]

@hexed egret In most cases, « se mettre » is used either to express a physical movement when the subject is the one that is « moving himself », for instance « Il s’est mis sur le côté de la route » = « He positioned himself on the side of the road » or it can also be used to express the beginning of an action, which is the more frequent use, for instance « Il s’est mis à danser » = « He started dancing »

In the first case, mettre and se mettre mean the same thing (the « se » only means that the subject and the object are the same person) whereas in the second case se mettre is more akin to the inchoative aspect

[worthy frost]

It’s just like in English.
« Then, he fled to Egypt. »
or « He then fled to Egypt ».
« Alors, il s’est enfui en Égypte. »
or « Il s’est alors enfui en Égypte. »
Both are correct, it’s just a stylistic preference.
Btw I don’t think you can put the « alors » somewhere else than in the beginning or after the auxiliary.
@hexed egret

[severe fractal]

Generally French adverbs can be placed in three places: at the beginning of the phrase, after the conjugated verb or at the end of the phrase. Some exceptions are made for adverbs in compound tenses wherein long adverbs are allowed to come after the past participle but that's more of an exception

Yes, mettre can be non-pronominal like « J'ai mis les clés sur la table »

[hexed egret]

Thank you both for the good and clear explanations! I will try to better myself with this grammar structure.

It’s seems se + mettre is quite common to express actions / clarify who is doing what in the sentence. I found more sentences in the article I was looking at with the same wording style.

[worthy frost]

It’s indeed one of the most commonly used way of describing the beginning of a sudden action. Another one would be « commencer à + infinitif», ex : « Il a commencé à boire » = « He started drinking », though « se mettre à + infinitif » feels more sudden and deliberate.

Btw even when you use it in its literal sense, like when you just want to express a motion, « se mettre » doesn’t always mean that the subject and the object are the same person. For instance, « Il s’est mis tout le monde à dos » = « He turned everyone against him », the « se » is not the object, it’s only the receiver / beneficiary of the action, more like a « pour lui-même/ contre lui-même ». Another example would be « Il s’est mis tous les desserts possibles sur son plateau », which roughly means « He put on his plate all the available deserts », where « se » is also only the beneficiary, and here it kinda puts the emphasis on the fact that he did all by himself and for himself. Another one would be « Il s’est mis la pression » which is a frequent saying that means « He put the pressure upon himself ».

@hexed egret